Eloquent, Embarrassed, and Positively Enamored
by iBayfully
Summary: AU. Elsa writes. Anna reads. Does either one know? No. What makes this even more complicated? Feelings. Diffidence. Zestfulness. Reciprocation. Love. (Elsanna but no icest so you can't arrest me haha) M for language and...themes.
1. Enter Our Protagonist

The sound of keys clicked rapidly as tireless fingers provoked the keyboard's inevitable abuse. The sound echoed throughout the quiet building, alas going unperturbed to most of the residents in it; they all knew Elsa was the prominent keyboard warrior in the house, though no one really knew why.

_She's always been a shy one,_ her mother would say at dinner parties or family get togethers. Often times curiosity had the young girl playing quietly in the corner the main subject of a conversation, who, other than being very polite, did not take after her parents' contagious social bug. People figured that, well, she's young and thus she'll grow out of it, right? No. Elsa did grow up, of course, but not out of her silent spells and timidity. They instead stuck with her and buried themselves as insecurities deep within her, just as she herself had done in relation to her safe bedroom against the overwhelming currents of social lives and interactions.

Even when the bounding, red-headed ball of energy came into her life, Elsa - well, she actually changed. A little bit.

Something about Anna had changed the way Elsa had felt; her parents had presumed this much, anyway. They knew the two loved each other, even when one chose to express it much more vividly than the other.

But they didn't know everything.

Elsa muttered to herself softly, sighing as she attacked the backspace key incessantly. The keyboard continued to clack with aggression, much like the current thoughts in her head. _No, no, it doesn't make any sense. Why would she want her back in her life when clearly last chapter she was showing signs of moving on? You made it so obvious, so it needs to be consistent. _She stopped and thought for a moment. And then she clicked her tongue. "This," she started clicking away again, "is what we call… cha-rac-ter de-ve-lop-ment." Elsa typed every word with each syllabic stress. Then she looked at her screen. The words seemed to stare back at her meanly. As if they didn't make any sense on purpose. She glared back.

_Goddamn._

Frustrated, she kicked away from her desk and spun around in her chair, resting a weary palm on her forehead. _Writing is hard._

A quiet knock on the door caused Elsa to freeze. She shot a glance at her desktop clock. 2:41 A.M. _Who-_

"It's me," the familiar voice called out from behind the door.

Silence.

"I...I know you're in there, you know. Just 'cause you stopped typing doesn't mean you vanished out of thin air." A soft chuckle ensued. "Ah, shoot, but if you did, I'm going to come in to make sure, okay?"

Before Elsa could stammer out a remotely comprehensible answer, the door shifted open slightly and her visitor slipped in silently. A smile found its way through the shadows of the night and onto the figure's face. "Hey, Elsa. Glad to see you haven't disappeared in the past thirty seconds."

Elsa blinked. "Y-you're awake?"

Her guest rolled her eyes. "I would expect everyone to be awake with how loud your keyboard is! Heh…" A quiet smile was her only response. The girl figured just as much, eyes slowly adjusting to the dimly lit room, stopping when they landed on the light source itself. Her eyes opened slightly.

"Ooh, what're you writing?"

Elsa froze. _Oh, no-_

Her visitor began to move closer, and Elsa sputtered, kicking her swiveling chair into motion to break the girl's path. "J-just, you know. Essay. For school. It's boring stuff. Oceanography." She blushed. Coughed. Lied.

But the girl giggled, not catching on. "I'm sure it's just fine." Her eyes twinkled, not going unnoticed by Elsa, who blushed. "Tell me, Professor Elsa, what you know about salinity's impact on marine life."

The sitting girl stammered, shocked at the sudden knowledge drop. _How does she-what-_

"U-uh, it's...it's not finished yet." She gesticulated frantically. "It's really bad. Lotta errors." Elsa spun around rapidly and hit alt and tab, much to the dismay of the girl, who showed a visible pout. _You made her sad. Stupid._

"Well, then, promise me you'll show it to me when you're done."

A beat. And then another. "...okay."

Her visitor beamed once more, and Elsa felt her heart flutter slightly.

"Well, I'll leave you to it." The girl backed up, never taking her eyes off of Elsa. "If you need me, don't hesitate to call," she added, and Elsa nodded silently, cheeks still pink. "If you need help, you know where your trusty step-sister will be!" Another drop of silence. The girl laughed again, more to herself this time. "In the same room I've always been in, duh...why would that change?" She muttered softly to herself as she closed the door behind her, leaving Elsa to her solitude, which she needed, at least in that moment. She felt the heat still prominent in her cheeks and she grumbled, dropping her head in her hands.

"Why do you make me feel this way, Anna?"

**A/N: IM BACK YALL GET HYPED**


	2. Explosions

Anna has always been energetic.

That in itself would be a vast understatement. As far as anyone has ever known, the fiery redhead has always been one to bounce off the walls with an exuberant force, unique yet contagious enough to find its way into other people's attitudes. No matter where she was or who she was with, the redhead always made it her goal to make everyone feel comfortable. And her efforts had shown throughout her years of high school. She was considered to have many friends, all fueled by her infectious vigor, but she also knew how to brush off anything that bothered her without any problems.

Her confidence is what particularly made her stand out. She would argue that anyone can be loud and rambunctious, as she often called herself, but others could see the true gem that she was.

As her best friend Kristoff would say, "she's got a heart of gold, even if she has an hand-eye coordination of a sloth."

It was obvious that Anna could warm up to practically anyone.

And yet, it puzzled her to the point of frustration that she couldn't have nearly the same effect on her step-sister.

Elsa was always quiet, but it got to the point sometimes where Anna felt like the blonde girl was shutting her out.

But Anna was always going to be there for her. That was something she didn't doubt. She just hoped Elsa didn't doubt it either.

* * *

Safety was important to Elsa, and while the buckling of seat belts was certainly no exception, she especially relished in the safety of the large, wooden door closing her bedroom off from the rest of the world. She was a known shut-in, at least among family friends and neighbors, only opting to come out when her parents demanded it of her. _You need to meet new people and mingle more, _they'd say constantly. _You're too young to be holed up in that room of yours. _

Elsa huffed indignantly at the thought. _I like my room. It keeps the demons away._

Demons as in people, so it seemed.

So she was safe and sound confined within the walls of her secluded paradise. What could ruin it?

A knock, apparently.

Elsa immediately tensed up, hitting alt and tab on her glowing Razer keyboard in rapid succession, but her shoulders slumped once more when out of the corner of her eye her father came through the door.

"Elsa," he started, then raised a brow at her side profile, eyebags illuminated by the dim computer screen in front of her. "When did you sleep?"

No answer. He sighed. "Anyway, do you think you can pick up your sister today from school?"

Elsa froze. _No. Not high school again. Not that awful place. But Anna..._

Her father noticed her tense up, and he opened his mouth quickly. "I know it's last minute; she had a schedule change for her club meeting, and-" he shrugged his shoulders sheepishly, "-neither your mother nor I can pick her up."

Elsa stared at her monitor. "...doesn't she drive?" she asked quietly.

"She brought the RAV to the shop, remember?"

_Shoot. _Elsa shut her eyes and nodded, exhaling through her nose. She recalled the (actually pretty comical) time when Anna had burst through the door frantically, waving her hands like a lunatic, yelling and panting. The outburst had nearly given Elsa a heart attack, who had been making herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She had pointed out the door, yelling nonsensical things amongst words like "gas" and "thought I filled it up" and "we're getting attacked by terrorists". Sure enough, the car was out in the driveway, engine shooting relentless sparks everywhere.

Long story short, she had forgotten to take it in for yearly maintenance and there had been a coolant leak, causing the engine to literally explode.

"Elsa…" her father stopped, unsure of how to continue. He knew Elsa struggled in public situations. Hell, he had _been_ knowing this. And yet…

His concerns were quelled when she nodded silently, and he breathed a grateful sigh of relief. "Thanks, sweetheart."

* * *

Elsa groaned. _Traffic? On a Tuesday afternoon? _

She had just gotten cut off by an enraged mother in a Toyota Sienna, who seemed to be driving and yelling at her kids in the back simultaneously. Elsa did nothing but give her a silent (yet slightly, uncharacteristically snide) side look. Elsa hated dealing with people. She would most certainly do whatever she could to avoid engaging in full-blown fisticuffs with those who she shared the roads with.

That was what her mind was for, anyway. _Bitch._

As she pulled up to the home of the Arendelle Antelopes, she felt a twinge of mental pain. How she hated this place. It almost brought her back to some of the memories she'd spent as a high-schooler there…

She shook her head. Sighed. _It's over with._

Elsa drove alongside the curb, glancing around hurriedly. _I hate this...where are you, Anna? _

As if on cue, a bright red flash of hair seemed to bounce towards her direction, and its owner was grinning widely, mouth ever-chattering as she and a group of friends exited their respective classroom door. Elsa could barely make out her words from her car

"...thought it was a porpoise, but dolphins have like, beaks, y'know? Hey, did you know dolphins actually rape- oh, hey, Elsa!"

_What- Anna, no-_

But the girl, energetic as always, was already waving her way with a huge smile on her face. The commotion received sudden attention from Anna's friends and some other teenagers, who gave Elsa a quick once over. Despite most of them shrugging it off nonchalantly, it was enough for Elsa to turn beet red. _Stopstopstop looking at me please._

Anna, characteristically oblivious to it all, turned around and exclaimed, "Guys, this is Elsa! You know, I told you about her already."

Her friends all looked at the blonde girl, sat there and marinated in painful silence.

"Uh, hey," one of them said finally. Elsa nodded. Opened her mouth. Then closed it. _Like a moron._

Anna, who had finally realized what she had caused, coughed loudly. "Well, I gotta dip now so, see you girls later!"

She hopped in the car and smiled. "Hey, sis. Fancy seeing you here today!"

Elsa gulped and cursed her inability to deal with other humans, opting to drive off as soon as she could. "You know…" she stammered, tapping the wheel. "Club meeting. Couldn't come. Um," she blushed, and Anna tilted her head slightly. "Mom and dad couldn't come. So they made me."

Anna nodded. "Ah," she said, a little softer.

Elsa panicked. "D-don't worry! I wanted to. Pick you up." _Jesus, Elsa. _"I wanted to pick you up so it's no big deal."

The radiating smile had returned to Anna's face once more, and Elsa released a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

When they reached a red light Anna wrapped her arm around Elsa's and squeezed tightly. "I think you just made my day," she whispered, breath lightly ghosting over Elsa's neck.

The red-hot blush had returned to Elsa's face, but even that couldn't stop the small smile creeping onto her face. _And I think you just made mine._

* * *

**A/N: thanks for following everyone! Finals bouta mess me up next week so sorry in advance if I ain't updating but when they're done y'all aren't ready for this story to take off :p**


	3. Beginnings

_And they all lived happily ever after? _Elsa scoffed. _You thought._

She sat in silence for a moment. Frowned. _Then, what?_

Elsa propped up an elbow and leaned into her hand, sighing. She had been working on this one for over a month now, and she had been doing so well, too. Normally she didn't map things out before, instead opting to go straight into it with no plan, making things up as she went, but this one was so well prepared. She had built each and every character with a likable story arc, and there was even a plot twist worthy of the praise of Agatha Christie herself.

Alas, she found herself stuck before an impenetrable wall with writer's block spray-painted harshly all over the edifice. _Right _at the ending.

The hardest part was always the ending.

She glared at the words, unfinished and incoherent. Lately, she felt as though she were glaring at these words at lot.

_Why am I even doing this? What is it even worth?_

Almost immediately she chided herself for thinking such a thing. _This is you, Elsa. This...this is what you love to do._

And that was how it had been for years. In her sophomore year of high-school, Elsa had just finished _The Blood of Olympus, _the culmination of Rick Riordan's _The Heroes of Olympus _pentology, and had subsequently fallen into the inevitable void of interminable emptiness, as she always did after finishing a great book or even TV series. Life seemed to certainly get worse as she no longer had anything at all to look forward to. Every day was just more time further from Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of the lovable heroes she had been spending her days with, year after year. Not to be dramatic, but it assuredly seemed to be the end of the world.

Until one day, her curiosity (and desperation) had brought her to a website she was shocked she hadn't discovered before.

Before her sat hundreds, thousands, _millions _of stories; every continuation, sequel or prequel to any story that ever existed most likely came to being on this website.

Elsa had gaped at her phone under her desk during AP World History, and she was shell-shocked for such an obscenely long amount of time that her teacher had called her out for using her phone and had taken it away, much to her dismay and embarrassment. Still, she couldn't get the very first glimpse of her findings out of her head.

Elsa had discovered .

With it, she discovered she also didn't need people anymore. Granted, she had been shy her whole life, but if this didn't solidify _that _thought, then, well. She knew she had a whole world to delve deep into, and she didn't hesitate, starting as soon as she retrieved her phone (after sitting through a painstakingly long lecture from her principal, Mr. Weselton). Soon, she had finished her first fanfiction. Then another. And another, and then another, until…

Until she wasn't satisfied. Again.

While she was very content with this new addition to her life, Elsa felt as though the fics she barreled through weren't of the quality she wanted. There were some really good ones, like, _really _good ones, but this wasn't always a common occurrence. To sum things up, she felt a little lost again.

And then, the idea dawned on her.

She had hurriedly walked home from school one afternoon and had headed straight to her bedroom, which wasn't really anything she hadn't been doing. But she had a plan. Shakily, she pulled out her laptop and opened a blank document. Thinking for a moment, she stared at the vacant space in front of her. _How do I really want the story to go? How do I want MY story to go…_

One word had appeared on the page. Then another, and then another, and before she knew it, her first story had been uploaded to the website.

She sighed contently and had closed her laptop. _Time to get ready for bed._

Elsa had awoken the next morning to a flood of email notifications from the website, notifying her of the abundance of favorites and followers she had received overnight.

Long story short, the girl had become something of a rising celebrity on the website.

People absolutely loved her first one-shot and her rendition of the beloved heroes of Olympus. They wanted more.

And for the first time in forever, Elsa felt like she had something she had never possessed before. She had confidence.

* * *

As Anna walked lazily through the kitchen door, a "good morning" ready to part with her lips, she raised an eyebrow at the sudden falling of the bowl from Elsa's hands. The blonde girl had been fumbling with her phone as she pulled it out of her pocket, and in the process of finding its correct vertical orientation she had dropped the bowl, letting it collide obnoxiously with the ground, milk and cereal splattering everywhere in the process.

Unbeknownst to the blushing girl who began to shuffle around clumsily in an effort to clean her mess, Anna watched the whole thing with a smile on her face. _She's so cute._

Although she was unwilling to part with the endearing scene, Anna decided that she wanted to assist Elsa more, and she had quickly scooped up a paper towel and joined her sister on the ground, laughing when Elsa jolted back at her sudden appearance.

"Hey there, clumsy pants. I'm here to stop you from feeding cereal to your pet floor." She giggled at Elsa flustered reaction.

"I-I didn't mean- I-"

Anna shushed her. "Calm down. You know I'm kidding." She leaned in closer. "It's a good thing Mom didn't see, though. With what that neat-freak places her values in, I'd be scared to square off against her with a spill this big."

"And you should be."

Anna yelped as she whipped around to see her mother, staring her down with two hands on her hips.

Pretty soon, Anna's face was as red as Elsa's.

"J-Jesus, Mom, we're fixing it! Cleaning. Cleaning up, fixing the problem. Right away! No trouble." The red-haired girl coughed and began to whistle to the tune of the Seven Dwarves' famous melody.

The only problem was that Anna never actually learned how to whistle.

So instead, there she was, kneeling on the ground spitting everywhere as her pursed lips fumbled with an unlearned skill.

The scene was enough to break Elsa, who covered her mouth but could not hide the signs of her laughter through her uncontrollable shaking.

Their mother, upon noticing the effect Anna had on her sister, couldn't help but break her scowl. When was the last time she had seen Elsa laugh like that?

She let the two off easy, just so long as they cleaned up thoroughly, which they did.

Afterwards, the sisters sat in a comfortable silence. Anna, who was happily munching away at her cereal, stopped and eyed Elsa, who was taking her spoonfuls much more carefully. Upon noticing the darkness swelling her eyes, she frowned.

"Sis, I know you've been drowning in immense oceanic knowledge, but are you okay?"

Elsa shifted slightly. Anna sat, waiting. "Like, you were up 'til probably 4 last night! And don't think I didn't hear you," she stated bluntly. "Your keyboard is probably one of the loudest things on the face of this Earth."

Elsa cringed. Why did she have to buy that keyboard with the cherry mx blues? It's not like she _needed _mechanical switches for those late night Teamfight Tactics sessions. Even then, she didn't need to write her fanfictions while simultaneously raising the decibel limit in the building.

She glanced back at Anna, who continued to stare her down interrogatively. Elsa shrugged helplessly. "College," she lied finally, "it's...it's just a lot of work. I just want to do well."

Anna sighed. "I know." She paused, then nodded after a few moments of silence. "Yeah, I get it. Well, I don't, since I'm not in college yet, but...I get it." She took Elsa's hand into her own and intertwined their fingers, and Elsa was glad her sister couldn't feel her heartbeat rise.

"I'm just...worried, you know? You always look so tired and I…" She exhaled. "I just want to be here for you."

She took Elsa's silence as normal, albeit a little disheartening, but she paid no attention to the fact that Elsa was frozen in shock, glands beginning to pop as she relished the touch.

_I really don't deserve you._

And then Anna's eyes brightened. "I have an idea," she said. "If you can pick me up from school again today, then we'll do something fun. Ah-ah-ah!" She raised a finger to Elsa's lips, which had begun to conjure up a half-assed excuse. "You don't have a choice."

"I-what-"

Her protests were silenced when Anna placed a quick kiss on her cheek. "Gotta go to school now. Love you!"

Anna bounded happily out of the kitchen, already excited for her afternoon plans. She didn't stop to notice the big grin on her Elsa's face, followed by a saturating blush.

Elsa raised a hand to her heart, unsurprised when it thumped back vigorously. _Oh, Anna...if only you knew…_


	4. Struggles

There was no denying that Elsa was in love with Anna.

The older girl shivered at the thought. Sure, it wasn't anything that she hadn't known for a while now, but just the idea alone was enough to get her thinking.

Elsa would always remind herself that the taboo wasn't as, well, _taboo_ as it would've been had they been blood-related. _God forbid._

Still…

It wasn't her parents' particular dream come true if the two became an item. It was far from it, actually. Obviously. Elsa knew this.

But that didn't stop her from feeling the things she felt.

In fact, her feelings had been a large contributing factor to her pulling into the parking lot of her former high-school for the second time that week.

The bell rang as soon as she drove up to the front of the school. Almost instantaneously, the door to Anna's classroom burst open and the aforementioned girl skipped out, more energetic than ever. This caught a few laughs from some other students, but Anna didn't even seem to notice. She scanned each car slowly, eyes narrowing when she couldn't find her target. And then...jackpot.

"Elsa!" she yelled, beaming.

The older girl was covering her face with one hand. _Jesus._

Anna pranced over and, as soon as she hopped into the passenger seat, Elsa sped off immediately.

"Oh, wow, fast and furious, are we?" the redhead giggled. Elsa blushed. "You're so loud, Anna…"

The younger girl pouted suddenly, and Elsa didn't know whether to feel bad or to blush more at the cute expression. "I was just excited to see you!" She paused, then clapped her hands together. "So!" Anna pulled up Waze on her phone and typed something in quickly. "Since we are spending some ka-WA-lity time together, allow me to guide you to our destination today."

Elsa blinked. _Oh, I nearly forgot. _She began to tense up at all the different scenarios in her head. _What if I mess this up? What if it doesn't go well?_

But Anna leaned over and hugged her arm tightly, humming with content.

And just like that, Elsa's fears were gone.

* * *

"Anna- oh my god-"

The redhead looked up from the mountain of frozen yogurt in front of her. "Hmm?"

Elsa stared wide-eyed as Anna happily wolfed away what had to be the most frozen yogurt Elsa had ever seen put in a cup at once. Granted, she wasn't alone, because the employee at the cashier did a double take, stuttering "card or cash" as Elsa fumbled with her credit card, embarrassed at Anna's froyo addiction's ability to make a scene.

Elsa thought she herself liked frozen yogurt, but as she compared her tiny serving to Anna's, she began to contemplate the magnitude of the spectrum of what it meant to love the sweet delicacy.

She glanced at Anna, who was delightedly distracted, then back down at her food. Then back up. _I just...I want to be able to say something. Anything. Have a conversation, idiot. You write so many in your fics._

She thought. _Maybe you can talk about your writing._

A beat. Then another. _Oh, good lord no. _

She physically winced at the thought, and her sister looked up at the sudden motion.

"Elsa? You okay?"

Elsa nodded quickly, but Anna stared. She seemed inquisitive, but she seemed to shrug it off. "I just wanted to spend more time with you, y'know? Especially since you moved on to college, it's been harder and harder to see you! Which is ridiculous, since we live in the same house-"

Elsa felt a pang of guilt and she twitched, not unnoticed by Anna. "Not that that isn't normal, though!" the younger girl spurted. "And besides, I have my own things to do as well, just like you do, and I have my own friends, and you have yours-"

Anna stopped and looked at her sister, who seemed to tense up slightly. Then it occurred to her that she wasn't actually certain if Elsa had any friends. If she did, then she didn't talk about them at all.

"Elsa, I'm so sorry, I didn't consider everything."

The blonde sighed and shook her head. "I-It's fine, Anna."

"No, it's not. It was insensitive. I just...I don't understand! You're so smart and kind, you're just too quiet." _Ouch. _"Which, y'know, is okay, but-"

"Anna," Elsa interrupted. "Please, just, not right now."

"But-"

"Anna," she repeated. Anna sighed, looking crestfallen.

"Okay."

The sight broke Elsa's heart. _Stupid, she just wanted to help you. Apologize, or say something, or anything, dammit!_

* * *

But she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Elsa glanced down at her desktop clock. 2:30 A.M. She shrugged. _The night is young. _

She bit her lip, thinking. Now what do I do here…

After a moment of thought, she proceeded to attack her keyboard once more, grimacing with her new awareness of just how loud the damn thing was.

She had been sitting in front of her screen for almost eight hours in a tireless effort to distract herself from her interaction with Anna earlier that day. After their awkward exchange, they had driven back home in silence. Anna had thanked her for spending time and Elsa had given her a smile, albeit a little forced. She had then wordlessly gotten out of the car and headed to her room, closing the door aptly behind her, needing, longing for something to do.

At the time, she was desperate for anything, but the answer was as obvious as it always was. _Fanfiction. Duh._

Having just finished her most recent fic, Elsa had planned to take a short break in the middle of writing stories, but it seemed as though her need to write more had come sooner than expected.

The unforeseen story was not being written begrudgingly, despite its quickness to develop. It's not like Elsa hated writing.

However, it took an odd turn when the main character began to fall in love with her sister.

Elsa hadn't even initially caught it, thinking nothing of the alarming plot point and she had written an additional thousand words before pausing.

"Wait...what?"

She had scanned back to look, and sure enough, she had already begun the main plot line as a girl who was, in fact, getting the hots for her sister.

An hour and an abundance of forehead smacking later saw the changed fixed. Elsa continued to type out her narrative, but ever since then she'd been clouded with the disturbing thought that her feelings were subconsciously starting to seep into everything she did.

_Why Anna?_

It was hard enough to admit to herself that she was gay. That in itself was a huge milestone for her, even though it was unbeknownst to anyone else.

But why did it have to be Anna?

Elsa shuddered at the thought. Not her beloved sister…

"It's not gonna happen," she said aloud, abruptly. Her fingers ceased moving and she glared upward, as if blaming a divine being for her predicament.

Silence filled the room. She felt the tips of her ears warm up in embarrassment as she really, _really_ noticed how fucking loud her keyboard was. And not only that.

"I'm talking to myself at the devil's hour," she groaned softly. "About my feelings for Anna. I'm losing my mind."

Sighing deeply, Elsa kicked away from her desk and fell backwards onto her bed.

Deep down, she knew that no matter how many distractions she tried to find, nothing could distract her from her lovely, wonderful sister.

* * *

**A/N: I'll try to lessen the amount of author's notes at the end but I'd like to apologize for taking so goddamn long on this LOL - see I destroyed finals but the climate + stress and etc destroyed me and I got extremely sick. But I'm recovering, and it's about time I continued contributing! Thanks for all your guys' patience. **


	5. Something New

Anna paced her room restlessly, ceasing her rhythm to momentarily think, sigh, groan, and then pace all over again. Why couldn't she get through to Elsa? It frustrated her that, despite her abilities as a social butterfly, which she strongly did consider herself, thank you very much, nothing seemed to work with the blonde girl.

Her step-sister was always quiet. This is something everyone knew, because, how could you not? It was painfully obvious just how much the older girl wanted nothing more than to avoid as much human interaction as possible. And that was okay, because that's how she was!

However, the amount of time that had passed and seen little to no change at all from Elsa was slightly concerning.

When Anna had first met her new family, she was anything but shy. In fact, no amount of words could describe how excited she was to be a part of something new, a part of something that took her unconditional love and gave it back to her with no hesitation.

She loved her adoptive family.

She would do anything for Mom, Dad, and Elsa.

Elsa…

She knew her sister loved her. She knew they cared for each other.

Anna just wished she would open up.

"It'll come with time," she said out loud. "Like everything. It just takes time."

She thought about that for a moment. Then she groaned, flopping onto her bed lazily, slapping a hand over her face.

_Why can't it be now? Why can't she open up to me now? Goddamn, Elsa!_

Anna racked her brain, trying to figure out what the problem was. It was certainly one thing to be shy, but Elsa...Elsa put off human contact like her life depended on her isolation.

She sat up suddenly. Blinked. "I'll do it," she spoke again. "I can make her open up. Why wouldn't I be able to?"

Seemingly forgetting the error to her previous predicament, she bounded out of her room and gave Elsa's room a knock. And then another.

"...Elsa?"

Nothing. Anna frowned. _I hope she's not asleep._

She glanced at the decorative clock on the wall. 2 P.M. As far as the younger girl knew, Elsa never took naps. This was apparent due to the incessant clicking of her unapologetically loud keyboard. _So then what's going on?_

"Elsa?" Still nothing. A nervous chuckle ensued. "I'm gonna come in, okay? Just so… you know, I know if you're alive in there or not. Hoping that you are. Of course."

Slowly the door creaked open and Anna peered in slowly, surprised when she saw the swiveling chair void of its daily inhabitant.

Anna moved to occupy the room's space, somewhat in a state of stupor.

"She's not here...wait, then where the heck is she?"

* * *

Elsa took a deep breath, focusing on the soothing voice of Fresh Air's Terry Gross over the radio. She sent an unnecessarily furtive glance at the coffee shop just outside of her parked car, heat rising to her cheeks when she felt her heartbeat increase.

_Why am I doing this?_

Elsa had taken it upon herself to reflect on the words that Anna said just the day before.

_You're so smart and kind, you're just too quiet._

She knew Anna was just trying to help her awkwardly silent sister. She knew she shouldn't have been so hurt by those words. Hell, it was because of her own hurt that she was here.

After a long period of contemplating and multiple instances of self-deprecation, Elsa had decided to act. For once.

_I need to change how I am. The bad parts. So Anna can see that I can be more. So much more._

She was doing this for her sister. For Anna.

And Elsa had been able to trick herself long enough to get into the driver's seat of her car and drive. But once she had reached her destination, her panic had reappeared.

So, what was she doing here, in front of this coffee shop?

When you become a writer on , you get reviews. You get reviews, and favorites, and private messages...Elsa had all of this, sure; after all, she was one of the most popular writers in her niche.

But one reviewer seemed to stand out in particular.

It had started off normally enough. The 'ping' sound had notified Elsa of a notification from , and she alt tabbed her homework assignment to take a look. Sure enough, a review had been left on her most recent story. Curious,she had clicked on it with a mild sense of anticipation. _Hopefully they liked it._

What she saw next was a confusing jumble of words and sentences, littered with things like "HEHEHE" and "GREAT FIC! WARM HUGS ALL AROUND!" and "imagine if Percy didn't have a skull. Or bones. HEHEHE."

Elsa figured that this was yet another internet troll.

She soon came to learn, however, that this was no troll.

The user "SummerTimeLover" continued to leave these confusing reviews on a number of Elsa's fics. They proved to be quite difficult to read, but once deciphered, Elsa realized that it was nothing but some of the kindest words she'd ever seen-on top of a whole lot of gibberish. And quite a lot of sass.

She had finally responded to one of these reviews, with a quick, "Thank you for reading, I'm glad you loved it - maybe in the future, Percy can give Annabeth a warm hug."

Her response seemed to spark the beginnings of a friendship. She just didn't know about it yet.

The two had been online friends for years, often helping each other with their respective works. SummerTimeLover, whose real name was Olaf, was constantly radiating positivity, making it actually quite easy for Elsa to talk to him. Even though it was over text, Elsa had never felt more comfortable talking to someone, whether it was about fanfiction, the weather, favorite movies, or just about anything Olaf had on his mind. Which seemed to be everything at once.

The topic had come up oddly. Olaf had sent Elsa a PM, asking for advice on how to make his two characters' dialogue a little richer. Elsa had tried to help, but in the end, she had told him to "just go with your gut on this one, Olaf. idk how to give advice on conversations when i'm so bad at them in person."

Olaf knew about Elsa's shyness. To an extent. He didn't ask questions. This was a benefit of being his friend.

There was a pause on the website's interface. Then a PM popped up.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

The girl began to type out a response when another message appeared.

"In person"

Elsa hadn't realized the sharp intake of her breath as she stared at his message.

"Olaf um you don't know where i live"

Another pause. Then:

"Well I live onnnn 13 Frost Lane. check and see if it's near you! HEHE"

Elsa had blinked. _Did he just give me his address…?_

After a tentative bout of hesitation, she typed in the address and gave an audible gasp. "I-it's twelve minutes away from here?"

She glanced at another new PM and opened it.

"You don't need to give me your address, it's okay that you're not as open and sharing as I am!" Eye roll. "We can meet at Oaken's and have a positive and meaningful discussion there!"

_Wow. So he wasn't lying._

It took Elsa some time to mull it over. This meant human interaction. In public. Two things she hated.

But Anna…

It was time she showed her sister what she could do. _I have to start somewhere. I have to do this._

Before she could hesitate more, she sent a quick response. "Okay...does 2 P.M. tomorrow work?"

An even quicker response appeared, defiantly sealing Elsa's fate to the action she just took.

"See ya there!"

* * *

Elsa mentally smacked herself. Her determination had all but disappeared as she stood shivering in front of the coffee shop, feeling a great sense of intimidation from the towering cardboard cutout of the man who she presumed was "Oaken" beckoning her to enter.

It was one of the scariest things she'd ever seen.

She glanced at her phone. 2:01. She glanced up. Oaken stared her down.

"I can't do this."

"Can't do what?"

"AH!"

The girl whirled around rapidly and immediately met the eyes of a man who was much shorter than her. He had jet black hair atop his head, gel stoically holding together his undercut. He had big, round eyes and a face that was as pale as snow. He scrunched his nose slightly and gave Elsa a toothy grin, giggling at her mouth, which was very much agape.

She had never seen this man before. And yet, somehow, she could immediately put a name to the face.

"Olaf?"

Olaf's grin widened, which Elsa didn't know was possible.

"And you are…?"


End file.
